Groups compete for Cinco de Mayo dollars

Posted: Sunday, April 01, 2007

Sean Thomassean.thomas@amarillo.com

A holiday that celebrates Mexican heritage has two local Hispanic organizations competing for funds.

KEYU Univision Borger Broadcasting Inc., a local Spanish-language station, and the Amarillo Hispanic Chamber of Commerce asked Potter County commissioners to sign off on their permit to hold a Cinco de Mayo festival on Polk Street.

The city of Amarillo requires at least 70 percent of businesses abutting the festival area to approve of the celebration before it will issue a parade permit.

Potter commissioners voted 3-1 Monday in favor of the permit. Commissioner Manny Perez voted against the issue because he said Univision is commercializing a holiday celebrated by Chicanos, people of Mexican heritage who are born and raised in the United States.

"They are trying to take away things the Chicano has created," Perez said. "The (Hispanic) Chamber of Commerce is doing an unfair deal to those people."

The Amarillo chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens has celebrated Cinco de Mayo in Amarillo for 20 years, said local president Abel Bosquez.

The event is used as a fundraiser for scholarships, Bosquez said.

"We do it to raise money for our scholarship fund. What we do, we give our money right back to the community in forms of scholarships," Bosquez said. "They are using it to build up their TV station. It's competition. Some of the Cinco de Mayos going on in Amarillo, that money goes into their pocket. That's the difference."

Univision, which came to Amarillo in 2003, tried to get LULAC to join its celebration, but Bosquez said his organization didn't join because it had its own event.

KEYU Office Manager Fernando Ballin said the station doesn't view it as stepping out on their own.

"We are of the mentality to organize all groups and put one big event on," Ballin said. "I don't want to designate it as our event. It's Amarillo's event."

LULAC last year gave away 12 $500 scholarships with money raised from its festival. Bosquez said as increased competition comes in - there were four festivals last year - it hurts LULAC's ability to raise funds.

"The money we used to make when we first started, that's been dwindling down because the competition takes some," Bosquez said. "Everybody is getting a piece of the pie, so everybody's pie is getting smaller."

Ballin said he could not say whether Univision took a profit from the festival, but that it cost thousands of dollars to put on the event.

Zack Lujan, president of the Amarillo Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber awards scholarships and this year is scheduled to give out two $1,000 scholarships as well as four scholarships coming from endowments at West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College. The chamber has six annual events that raise money for scholarships and business development, and monthly fundraisers that put money directly to scholarships, Lujan said.

The competing festivals also raised cultural differences.

Perez said Univision caters to Mexicans living in Amarillo and there are few entertainment outlets for Chicanos. Bosquez said TV stations and radio stations are geared toward Mexicans.

"Most of the businesses that you see down the boulevard, Grand Street ... a lot of those businesses are owned by people from Mexico or people from here that are first-generation immigrants. It's geared to it because it's Mexican owned," Bosquez said.

Lujan said his organization and the event are not catered to any particular ethnicity.

"We do not discriminate against anyone of Hispanic descent. We work with them all," Lujan said.

Perez said there is no feud or issue between Chicanos and Mexicans, just that Chicanos are under-served.